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A little story
In September 1978, President Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin together at Camp David. The two nations had engaged in multiple military conflicts in the preceding decades, including the Yom Kippur War and the Six-Day War. This violence destabilized the region and caused innumerable humanitarian tragedies.
Carter understood that both men would arrive at the talks with a sense of fear and mistrust.
This meant they would seek to bolster themselves with bravado in order to project strength.
Allowing that conduct to fester would only lead to a tit-for-tat negotiation, wherein both sides refused to make concessions.
Carter chose to diffuse this behavior by humbling himself. He was confident enough in his role that, for example, he would allow them to hold doors open for him to enter-an act considered effeminate in their cultures. He even rode between the two men in the back seat of a long car ride to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he described the horrors and losses of the American Civil War.
After twelve days of tense negotiations, Sadat and Begin had finally reached an impasse over settlements on the Sinai Peninsula. Begin was about to walk away from the table, his bags already packed. Earlier in the week, however, the three men had taken a photo together. Prime Minister Begin requested a signed copy as a gift for his grandchildren before leaving.
Carter presented Begin with eight signed copies of the photo, each individually addressed to his grandchildren by name with the words "with love." Begin was moved by the gift, but Carter went on to explain that he had hoped to write, "This is when your grandfather and I brought peace to the Middle East." At that moment, Begin began to cry-along with Carter. Carter's work over the previous days finally came to fruition when the three men were able to bring their humanity, not their egos, to the negotiation table. The Camp David Accords were agreed upon the next day.
Sadat and Begin, but not Carter, shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.
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